Chapter 189: Baking Competition (3)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 189: Baking Competition (3)
Everyone Has a Story.
"It is finally time for me to step down."
How long had they waited to hear those words?
Jinseong and Jinhan, heirs to a flower arrangement family from the far East, watched as the head of their house—no, their father—muttered while fiddling with his work. The two brothers swallowed their tears.
After a very long time, they had finally earned his recognition.
And so.
"This is the final trial I bestow upon you."
To overcome the final trial their father had set.
"Go to the Elleras Empire in the West and win their historic and traditional flower arrangement competition."
They had traveled to a distant foreign land based on those words alone, but even there, they found no one who could be considered a worthy rival.
Even the most renowned figures of the West could rarely best the heirs of a prestigious family from the East, the true home of flower arrangement. There were few in the vast Western continent who could match them.
Of course, they were a bit—no, very—surprised when they encountered people in the Round of 16 who did flower arrangement using monstrous creatures that looked like they could devour humans. (They had sincerely feared for their lives.)
Regardless, they had seized victory and continued their winning streak.
However, they had seen it.
A presence that they felt they could never defeat, not now, and perhaps not even in the distant future.
The movement of her small hands wasn't particularly fast. It wasn't flashy, either.
Yet, every single touch was filled with sincerity.
There were no unnecessary movements.
Every time her hands moved, flowers bloomed beautifully, and a fading vitality began to pulse once more.
Their father, the head of the family and their teacher, always said the same thing.
—Flowers are life. Therefore, you must always remember that what we handle is not a mere object, but a living thing. True flower arrangement is not about visible beauty.
An amateur simply combines flowers to make them look pretty.
An intermediate artist highlights the life of the flower—the brilliance of its existence.
But a true master, he said, can make the flowers overflow with vitality.
They had always thought their father’s words were just the typical vague ramblings of an old man.
But seeing a work that matched that description—no, exceeded it—right before their eyes, they finally understood.
Their father had been talking about this level of mastery.
Even if their father had seen it, he likely would have blurted out, "What the hell is that?"
Fortunately or unfortunately, their father wasn't here, so their illusion remained intact.
"Can we win?"
"Against that?"
As they looked at the opponent they would face in the finals, their will quickly crumbled.
"……Nom."
"……"
"……"
By the time they snapped out of it, they had accidentally kidnapped her.
"Hey, Brother!"
"No, it’s not what it looks like!"
At his younger brother Jinhan's shout, the elder brother Jinseong tried to recall how things had ended up this way.
'It started...'
At first, it was just curiosity.
He simply wanted to have a conversation with the artisan who created such works.
So, he had approached her cautiously to talk, but he was naturally ignored.
In response, he offered a cookie he had bought from a Dale bakery—one that had reached the semifinals of the historic, 80-year-old baking competition being held right next door—and asked for a chat.
"Give me more."
"……Yes, ma'am."
The opponent had simply followed him without a moment's hesitation.
"To follow us without a second thought just for some snacks! Is she a child?!"
"……Isn't she?"
At his brother's remark, Jinhan also fell silent.
To be honest, even to him, the girl looked to be in her mid-teens at most.
"Ugh."
Had he really felt a wall between himself and such a child?
For a moment, he felt a sense of self-loathing for a life spent looking only at flower arrangement for decades. However, he soon regained his composure and looked at reality coldly.
'No matter how you look at it, this is a child abduction using food.'
Furthermore, since she was their opponent in the tournament finals, they wouldn't be able to escape punishment even if they were foreigners.
Therefore.
"Th-there's still a chance! If we just put her back where she was!"
"Y-yeah!"
It wasn't a crime yet.
They could make the excuse that they were just having a brief chat with a child.
As fellow practitioners of the path of flower arrangement (they weren't), they were just sharing snacks and talking!
"Give me more."
"Already?!"
…Of course, the "conversation" consisted of nothing but her unilaterally shaking them down for bread and cookies.
Anyway, that was that.
As they were leading Delmoa back toward the arena, having sacrificed all the snacks they hadn't even tasted themselves...
"Kyaaa!"
"I-it's a Dark Mage!"
Naturally, they ran into the RoFan civil servants: the Dark Mages.
"If you don't want to die, don't resist and follow us!"
"……"
"……"
The kidnappers had ended up being kidnapped themselves.
Dark Mage - Damn the Academy
Dark Mages.
While they were still treated as incarnations of evil across the continent, they were starting to be hunted like high-level monsters in the heart of the Imperial Capital, especially near a certain Academy.
There were many reasons why things had turned out this way.
To name the two most representative causes: first, the overall level of the Academy students had risen.
In the Swordsmanship Department, overwhelming powerhouses—who normally wouldn't even think about fighting each other—clashed regularly, inspiring a competitive spirit in the other students.
As a result, most students reached a level where they could keep up with the Sword Emperor's crazy training, something they normally wouldn't do.
In addition, for reasons unknown, an environment was created where the students' skills had no choice but to keep rising, as an unusually high number of Heterogeneous Species gathered in the Swordsmanship Department—including a Saintess who could beat down even Dragonkin if the conditions were met.
Was that all? The Magic Department was also in a state where the entire department was shouting "Down with the Swordsmanship Department" and training with gritted teeth to avoid losing to them, all because a certain giant "Magic Wannabe" loach had muddied the waters.
Thanks to this, the magic professors were shedding tears as students demanded combat-oriented lessons reminiscent of the Leon Tower mages even in theoretical classes.
Consequently, the combat power of the Academy's Magic Department students had risen to the point where even Dark Mages could no longer treat them as mere greenhorns.
However, this was an area the Dark Mages could have managed somehow.
Ultimately, the truly important second reason was...
"We've taken civilians as shields for now, but what do we do next?"
"Why are you asking me?!"
"You're the superior!"
"Damn it!"
The problem was that the focal point capable of uniting the Dark Mages had vanished.
Although a massive focal point called the Black Tower existed, the majority of Dark Mages didn't even know its exact location.
Since they were essentially a point-to-point organization of people who survived by abandoning each other at any moment, they needed a leader with powerful charisma to hold them together. That was supposed to be the role of named Dark Mages like Silence and those destined to strongly inherit the power of the Demon Tribe.
However, most of them had died before they could nurture the future of the Dark Mages.
Silence, who was supposed to lead the Dark Mages and cultivate numerous named successors, died as soon as he appeared.
As a result, his splintered factions tried to carry out their own agendas, only to be discovered before they could even realize their dreams.
Instead, it resulted in their research achievements being handed over to their enemies, including the Academy.
Was that all?
The Demon Tribe, appearing earlier than in the original work, was resurrected in a weaker state than in the original.
Combined with the fact that the Academy side had become much stronger than in the original, they were not only defeated as soon as they were resurrected but suffered the humiliation of being used as crafting materials for items.
Because of this, the Dark Mages, who were supposed to grow by receiving Magi and power from the Demon Tribe, failed to grow.
As a result, the logic of overwhelming power didn't apply, and the Dark Mages' chain of command fell into shambles.
In such a state, the Demon Tribe factions, including the Black Tower, proceeded with their plans as originally intended.
The plans themselves were perfect, but because there were no Dark Mages capable of executing them, things kept going awry.
This operation was no different.
The operation, which would have proceeded smoothly if the plan involving Ilias around this time last year had succeeded, was ruined after all the lines connected to Ilias were cut.
Consequently, the plan was discovered early and failed quickly, and even the core organization, Silverstone, was exposed.
On top of that.
"Those damn Heresy Inquisitors."
The Heresy Inquisitors, who had been the Dark Mages' nightmare since ancient times, were pouncing on them with glee.
Most of the Dark Mages deployed for this operation had already been wiped out.
Seeing as the revolutionary forces prepared for the diversion were quiet, it was certain they had already been dealt with by the Empire.
However.
"Aaargh!"
The Dark Mages, struggling to survive...
"You... you trampled on my dream."
...were ultimately crushed by a man who dreamed of being the King of Baking.
"...I mean, is that really something to get that angry about?"
I was dumbfounded as I watched Uncle Aeryun's back as he vented his aimless rage.
"I know, right..."
Even the Flame Oven—no, the Fire Spammer—looked bewildered by Uncle Aeryun's unprecedented fury.
Clearly, it was a baking competition he had started just to kill time.
Apparently, Uncle Aeryun had been dead serious about it.
"Still, it was fun."
Or maybe not.
Seeing the human oven master smiling slightly, it seemed he had enjoyed himself quite a bit too.
Well, it wasn't bad.
The results were surprisingly delicious, so it was fun to sneakily snack on them.
As I watched Uncle Aeryun's rampage from afar and was about to pull out a cookie made during the semifinals from my subspace pouch...
"Give."
"……?"
Before I knew it, Delmoa was beside me, holding out her hand as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
When I gave her the cookie in my hand, she began to nibble on it.
"……!"
Her eyes widened, and in a rare show of surprise, she began to munch on the cookie rapidly.
"Is it good?"
"Yes……!"
Seeing her nod vigorously, it seemed she really liked it.
"You won't be able to eat it anymore, though."
"……!"
With an expression that would have been accompanied by a Rumble! sound effect if this were a manga, Delmoa soon looked down at the cookie with a face full of sorrow.
"Why..."
I was a bit surprised because she usually didn't act like this.
Tears were almost welling up in her eyes.
"The shop went out of business."
To be precise, the reason for making them had simply vanished, but Delmoa seemed to have realized the emotion of despair from that explanation alone.
"Hey, why are you doing that to a kid?"
At that, the Fire Spammer knelt down with an exasperated expression to meet Delmoa's eyes.
"Big Sis made that. There's more here."
"Shop... out of business?"
It seemed the Fire Spammer had also secretly stashed some away, but even so, it was only two cookies.
Just as sorrow was about to fill Delmoa's eyes again.
"I told you Big Sis made it, didn't I? We don't need a shop. It's fine as long as I make them."
"……!"
At that, Delmoa's face changed.
Roughly speaking, she seemed to have realized the emotion of hope.
Violet - I've been NTR-ed.
"Delmoa!"
Upon receiving word that Delmoa had been found, I rushed over.
And then I saw it.
"……Delmoa?"
Delmoa, flashing a bright smile at someone—a smile she never showed me.
Even though she clearly heard my voice, she only turned her head slightly before turning back.
Furthermore, she was showing a level of closeness to that person that had taken me days to achieve—no, even more than that!
"……Delmoa."
On that day, I came to understand Daisy's feelings, if only a little.